walkstation

{{Short description|Portable audio workstation}}

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Image:Yamaha QY10.jpg - the device for which the term walkstation was originally coined]]

A walkstation is an electronic music device which provides musicians with the facilities of a music workstation in a portable package.

The term was introduced as part of the marketing for the Yamaha QY10,

{{cite magazine|last=Trask|first=Simon|date=May 1991|title=Yamaha QY10|journal=Music Technology|publisher=Music Maker Publications (UK)|url=http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/yamaha-qy10/2165}} presumably as a portmanteau of Walkman and workstation.{{cite magazine|last=Russ|first=Martin|date=August 1994|title=Yamaha QY300|magazine=Sound on Sound|publisher=SOS Publications Group|url=http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/aug94/yamahaqy300.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150607014127/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/aug94/yamahaqy300.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-06-07}}

Its usage is typically limited to the portable members of Yamaha's QY sequencer family.{{cite magazine|first1=Derek|last1=Johnson|first2=Debbie|last2=Poyser|date=August 1996|title=Roland PMA5|journal=Sound on Sound|publisher=SOS Publications Group|url=http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1996_articles/aug96/rolandpma5.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402123719/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1996_articles/aug96/rolandpma5.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-04-02}}

The features of a walkstation are:

• sound module
• music sequencer
• (usually) a small musical keyboard.
• small size
• battery power

The heyday of the walkstation lay between the time when creating such devices was viable and the time when general-purpose portable devices, such as laptops and mobile phones, were capable of offering comparable functionality.